Kumon My Book Of Easy Crafts

I just discovered the Kumon books for children this summer, and I am so glad I did. My son has loved them! There are books of mazes, books for cutting, books to learn numbers, books to tell time, books to color, and books to make easy and amazing crafts! EASY CRAFTS is meant by Kumon to be a book for 4-6 year old children. The sequel book, AMAZING CRAFTS, is meant for children 5-7 years old. I own them both, and I can say that the crafts are no easier in EASY CRAFTS, and that my son is 8 years old and still needs an adult to help him with some of the projects. So don't expect to give this to your child and have him work alone to have success with all the projects, for some require things done in a certain order step by step exactly to turn out right. These projects are truly AMAZING!!! Kumon prints them on sturdy paper, in bright colors, using nice graphics; not babyish, yet cute and fun. I am so so weary of today's idea that everything made for children must have disturbingly deformed, cartoon-like, unrealistic artwork. Cover art on the covers of the Kumon books in no way relates to the art style inside. The art is child friendly, pleasing, colorful, and simple. To use this book, the child needs to know how to cut fairly precicely, fold carefully, and know how to use glue neatly. These are skills you can teach your child in other Kumon books BEFORE having your child do EASY CRAFTS. The books by Kumon: Let's Fold, Let's Cut Paper, Let's Sticker and Paste are good preparation books for a child to learn the skills needed to make EASY CRAFTS. I have reviewed all the "Let's..." books here on Amazon. They are great little books as well! Okay, be sure to give your child GOOD scissors for cutting, and glue that is easy to use; a good glue stick or a glue pen. Then enjoy some time sitting with your child as he makes some wonderful things such as: Surfing Animals (a simple project that involves only cutting and folding, and my son loves to have surf races across the dining room table---you blow gently for the animals to zip along!), a long long snake, leaping frogs, flying hippo and pig, a spinning alien, a bobble head dog, a walking robot (your fingers make him do the walking!), a clapping cat, a flapping chicken (very clever and one of my favorites!), a barking dog, a biting alligator (special fold techniques make the toys "move"),a buzzing bee popping out of a flower, a very clever toy that spins called "space travel" (one of my son's favorites), and then assorted paper animals that stand such as a giraffe, elephant, turtle, bunny, and paper jewelry such as watches and rings. There are 40 crafts in all. Projects do range from easy to more difficult; there are some the child could have success with alone. Many of these projects are nice for a child who is sick in bed and needs something to do to occupy his time while being still. This book would make a great get well gift or a birthday gift for any child even up to age 10. An older child could enjoy making the paper toys for or with a younger sibling. All in all, an EXCELLENT book that every child should have the opportunity to enjoy. I am so glad for Kumon's efforts to publish these beautiful and fun books for children! I don't know how anyone would be disappointed with this book! Enjoy!

Who is this book for? Kids who are able to cut circles, triangles and squares fairly well. It does not have to be perfect, but some skill is needed. This past year we used My First Book Of Cutting (Kumon Workbooks) before we started using this book. The first few crafts include cutting a few animal cartoons on surfboards and then you can blow on them on the table and have a little contest. There are rings, masks and finger puppets. At this point my son needs help with bending paper and folding. As a stay at home mom I can tell you that it is nice to have a book where you can just take a page out, get Fiskars 194900-1001 Pre-School Training Scissors, Assorted Colors and Elmer's Disappearing Purple School Glue Sticks, 0.21 oz, Pack of 6 (E1560) and your oldest can make a craft for him and little sister with very little prep. He only needs help from me he is done cutting. You can probably find lots of activities like these online. However, googling and printing sometimes takes way too long for an activity that will only last a few minutes. This book makes it much simpler to find something to do. The paper is thick and the colors are pretty. The crafts get more complex as the book progresses making it a challenge, but not too hard if followed in order.

Awesome book with crafts, instructions are great. My 4 year old cuts and glues by herself, most of them are easy enough for her. For some of them she needs help. I'd say get the previous "cutting" book first and then this one, otherwise "the cutting" book may be boring after this one with crafts.

I love the quality of the paper, it’s very thick. The pictures are vibrant. This is a more advanced cutting and pasting book and requires a bit more grown-up help for my 4 year old. What’s great is that this is not simply a cut and paste activity, but kids are able to construct and play with their cut-outs after. The constructions are 3-D and kids can see the outcome of their work! All the crafts move: the spinning alien, the bobble head dog, the walking rabbit, etc. And many of the crafts allow multi-players like blowing on the surfing animals, 2 flying animals (hippo and pig), etc. It’s an effortless and easy activity that we bring out occasionally without having to think about too much about what crafts to do with your kid. For 95% of the activities, you only need scissors and glue, there are some that require string like the flipping pancake on the pan and the flying bird - a favorite! My daughter would flip through the book and choose what she wants and I would separate out each piece for her and she would start cutting along the solid lines. Instruction is simple - cut on solid, fold up on dashed lines, and fold down on dotted lines, glue where the glue icon is. I’ll admit, some of the steps confused me!! But we were able to modify and it still worked out. There’s also a final picture so you can see what it should look like. Overall, great quality, simple instruction, and a multi-layered book of learning and fun.

I've had three of my kids go through this book over the years, and it's always one of their favorite activities for pre-school/early elementary. The crafts are so colorful and fun, and it's printed on very sturdy paper. I love that they increase in difficulty through the book, and typically make something that my kids can play with once they're made. The only thing I don't like is that the pages aren't perforated, so I have to cut each page out of the book for them. It's a little cumbersome, and doesn't always work the best. If they switched to tear-out pages, this book would be absolutely perfect.

Got this for my 4-year-old daughter who is very high energy. She LOVES the activities in this book. It keeps her occupied for about an hour until she gets tired and wants to move on to something else - which is a big compliment to this activity book :-) This is a step-up from the scissor skill books. There is cutting out shapes, working with a glue stick, and also figuring out how to put it all together - sequencing steps using numbers. All of that is great kindergarten prep. There are quite a few activities in the book, laid out in the order of complexity. If you have two kids, many activities are designed for two kids (making two rings, four finger puppets, two masks). Amazing value. Highly recommend.

Whole family absolutely love this book . I can not rave enough about it. Have bought it for friend children and they feel the same way. it has helped my son (only 4 but very academic/can read etc.) learn and practice: valley and mountain folds, following visual and verbal instructions and diagrams, cutting accurately, hand strength, problem solving, following a key, creating and then playing with or more often gifting his creations. From which he has derived great autonomy, confidence and pleasure. After the first few he just did it on his own and then was teaching me how to do it (I'm generally good at spacial awareness, instructions, map reading etc. turns out he's even better ... Well...at this book!) have bought another for my daughter for when she's older. the variety of toys and games and models you can make with this book is huge. You will end up with a house full of little paper toys but could gift them to grandparents, make into mobiles etc. Or just bin them after a few days! Its the process that counts, which my son really git that and after a little investigation and play with what he had made gave it to someone and cracked straight on with the next thing. again i had to slow him down a bit but each thing does take longer to do than mazes etc. finally they get progressively harder throughout book which is great

Son libros geniales para niños de 3 a 6 años. Es el segundo libro que le compro a mi hijo de 4años y le encanta! Están en inglés pero no es necesario saber inglés. Todo viene bien explicado con imágenes. Donde debe cortar, doblar y pegar. Yo este en concreto lo compraría para niños a partir de 4años. La calidad del papel e imagen excelente Yo debo racionar el libro porque quiere pasar todo el día haciendo hojas y más hojas.

Lo uso para complementar temas de la escuela o para un tiempo de convivencia con mi hijo

This is one of the most recommended items by occupational therapists and play therapists for working out those hand muscles for kids. It's a great book for 5yr Olds who have just learnt to cut and the craft work gives them a high sense of accomplishment and that's a win!!